St. Mary’s Church on the outskirts of Goathland is one of five churches in the United Benefice of Middle Esk Moor. The other churches in the Benefice are at Egton, Grosmont, Glaisdale and Lealholm. Combined services are held with the other churches at the monthly Benefice Holy Communion and other special services.
Records from 1568, during the reign of Elizabeth I, tell of St. Mary’s Chapel which was by then probably near to the site of the present church. By 1821 a new church building had been completed, standing on a site next to the present church in what is now the old churchyard.
The current church was designed by William Brierley of York and completed in 1896. The style is perpendicular, with some Arts and Crafts overtones. Much of the woodwork was made by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson of Kilburn.
The church has some good pictorial stained glass, the east window (designed by A.L. Moore) and the south wall windows (by J.C.N. Bewsey) being from the early twentieth century. The two west end windows are modern, commissioned for the Millennium, by Ann Sotheran.
Although the church is late Victorian, it contains several artefacts from the earlier churches and chapels, dating back to the Norman or even Saxon periods.
The spiritual origins of Goathland (or Godeland) go back as far as the eleventh century when a small group of Christian brothers settled by the Eller Beck to the South of modern-day Goathland. They built a chapel called ‘St Mary at Godeland’, probably close to their hermitage buildings.
Goathland is now a popular and well known tourist centre in the North York Moors National Park. The village and its surroundings are frequently used as a film location including for Hogsmeade Station in the first Harry Potter film and is the fictional village ‘Aidensfield’ in the ITV series ‘Heartbeat’. St Mary’s church has been featured in the Heartbeat television series many times including numerous weddings and funerals. The church was also the scene of a raid by circus folk, grave robbing incidents and the shooting of a lay preacher.
To find the cache, visit the nautical themed memorial where the inscription will help you answer the questions below, the number will give you the letters A to F required to solve the coordinates.
N54 23.A B C
W000 43.D E F
- A = How many full decades did Elizabeth live?
- B = How many years into her final decade did Elizabeth live?
- C = What is the sum of the last two numbers of the year of Elizabeth's death?
- D = What is the number of the month William died?
- E = What day of the month did William die?
- F = What is the final number of William's age when he died?
If you would like to add to the Church Micro series yourself then please look here
http://churchmicro.co.uk/
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page that can be found at
http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html